Weekend Open Thread

With all the trade discussion going on, something that hasn’t been given too much attention here is who we should go after on the FA market this summer with our MLE and VET min contracts.   Here is a list of potential swingmen we could go after to replace George and Jones.  Jones has an option this year, no word yet (that I know of) that he will pick that up.  Remember we have Reyshawn Terry that we could bring back over from Europe.

Tony Allen
James Posey
Daniel Gibson
Juan Dixon
Mickael Petrius
Kirk Snyder
Bonzi Wells
Antoine Wright
Maurice Evans
Gordan Giricek
Brent Barry
CJ Miles
Roger Mason

Who should we pick up?  Should we go ahead and just keep George and Jones?  These are only some swingmen that are available of course, but this is assuming that we can pick up Diop or maybe Kurt Thomas or a Francisco Elson, say at 3-4 mil p/ year.  Does someone else have a list of Big's that we can realistically go after this summer?

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To start things off, much has been suggested around these parts that the NBA is rigged.  From Stern not liking Mark, and him supposedly swaying the calls in the Finals, to the NBA as a whole not liking Dallas because it hasn’t really had (up until we got Kidd that is) a marketable superstar.  After watching the Spurs blow a 20 point league the other night, could David Stern be throwing his weight around to make sure a Celtics-Lakers Finals becomes a reality this season?

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Boston at Detroit - today 7:30 CST, ABC

For those of you who are even still watching the NBA at this point, there has been some surprisingly decent basketball out East.  The Celtics just lost their first game at home in the playoffs this last week, with them finding it hard to score outside of their big three.  They head back to Detroit today, and though Boston has not won on the road this postseason, Detroit has been known to take a game or two off in a series. 

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Lakers at San Antonio - Tomorrow 7:30 CST, TNT

I am so confused in watching the Lakers-Spurs series.  My dis-like and hatred for both teams has my mind swirling around as too who I should pull for.  Needless to say, Lakers have looked really good, and San Antonio has looked like, well, we did in the first round... Old, a step behind, giving up leads, and allowing the opposing teams star take over the game.

Stackhouse went on the Herd this week, and displayed his hatred for the Spurs and calls them out as being some of the biggest "cry-babies" in the league.   Specifically pointing out Tim Duncan. 

He of course is pulling for the Lakers, says that Kobe is pretty "arrogant" but he thinks that SA will find a way to win the series.  This interview was done before lasts nights game.

You can listen to the Podcast on ESPN if you have insider on the Mavs team page, I couldn’t link it for whatever reason.